Online Retailers Expanding Sales Channels

Online Retailers seek to find more sales channel opportunities to grow retailing online. Seeking to find more outlets for their products and although the study quoted here is about large and medium retailers, expanding to more sources of income definitely applies to smaller retail businesses. Many local businesses expand to sell online using basic open source ecommerce platforms such as oscommerce or shopping plug-ins for content management platforms (CMS).

When they reach a plateau in sales and audience, they look for ways to extend their reach via well known options of eBay stores or Amazon channels. Now they see opportunities across additional places like FaceBook, Twitter and new “Deal-a-day” sites like Groupon. Smart small business owners are also getting wise to the search engine effectiveness of blogging and regular posts on that blog about their products and news from their own industry.

Retailers looking to embrace more channels in the race to diversify online

Research finds that established channels are the primary focus for retailers, with new channels such as social commerce following closely behind

25 May 2011 – London, UK – A new survey of European retailers has found that firms are planning on increasing the number of online channels they sell through as the industry looks to maximise revenues in an increasingly competitive economy. The research, conducted by e-commerce specialist ChannelAdvisor at the ChannelAdvisor Catalyst 2011 conference in London, surveyed a cross section of medium and large retailers and found that, even though over half of respondents are already present on more than five online channels, a full 87 percent of firms are looking to increase the number of online channels that they sell through within the next three years.

The channel most likely to benefit from retailers??? emphasis on new channels is Amazon, which was identified by one in four respondents as the channel with the most potential to increase sales, putting the site ahead of rival eBay, paid search marketing channels such as Google, comparison shopping sites, social networks and even brands??? own e-commerce sites. Eighty-five percent of retailers surveyed currently sell through more than one channel online, with the majority (54 percent) operating in more than five separate sales channels.

Social commerce is also increasingly prominent on retailers??? agendas; the survey revealed that 40 percent of retailers are active on Facebook and 32 percent active on Twitter. Already, one in five retailers (21 percent) see social networking as a sales channel in its own right, and the majority is currently using Facebook as a tool for marketing (64 percent) and community engagement (32 percent).

James Scott, managing director, EMEA for ChannelAdvisor commented: ???Channels such as Amazon, eBay, Google and, increasingly, Facebook represent a fantastic opportunity for retailers to take their products and services to a whole new audience. E-commerce is currently growing at 19 percent year on year across Europe, at the same time as it is becoming increasingly complex, sophisticated and competitive. It is vital that retailers can start to generate sales from any new platform they engage on quickly and cost-effectively, so it???s no surprise to see that they are primarily focusing on established and proven channels to make the most of the most of this rapidly expanding market.???

???Yet at the same time retailers need to keep a very close eye on the more revolutionary models now being explored in social commerce. These platforms have huge potential and those businesses that can crack social commerce will have a chance to put themselves way ahead of the competition, which explains the uptake of channels such as Facebook and Twitter.???

About ChannelAdvisor
ChannelAdvisor is a global e-commerce platform provider that helps retailers sell more online through channels such as marketplaces, paid search and comparison shopping, and with webstores and rich media solutions. Widely respected as a trusted advisor for more than 3,000 top e-commerce brands, ChannelAdvisor calms the chaos of online selling by enabling retailers to submit one inventory feed to the ChannelAdvisor platform where it is translated to fit the specifications of hundreds of e-commerce channels and distributed accordingly. In 2010, ChannelAdvisor managed more than GBP 1.7 billion in annual gross merchandise value (GMV) on behalf of retailers of all sizes including Joe Browns, Republic Retail, Speedo, and Carphone Warehouse. ChannelAdvisor???s European headquarters are located in London, United Kingdom, with additional offices in Ireland and Germany; global headquarters are in North Carolina, USA and other offices are located in New York, Seattle and in Australia. For further information, visit www.channeladvisor.co.uk